


And a Sparrow Falls

by macgyvershe



Category: Forever Knight, MacGyver (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 20:52:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4639800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macgyvershe/pseuds/macgyvershe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an older work. Cross over MacGyver and Forever Knight. Two of my former fandoms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And a Sparrow Falls

**Author's Note:**

> Also there actually is a problem with lighted sky scrapers in Toronto. I was visiting there decades ago with a very insomniac friend. She got me up at 2AM to go down to the 24 hour coffee shop in the hotel. (We were there for a Forever Knight charity auction. I ran Nigel Bennett's fan club for 5 years) We did run into many people who had huge butterfly nets. My friend asked about it. Birds hit the lighted glass buildings and fall into the canyons below. Most times they are injured or unable to fly upwards again. These volunteers search the base of the buildings capturing the living and injured and putting them in brown bags. Those who are okay are taken to the edge of the town and released. Injured birds are taken to a bird sanctuary to be tended to. So real story.

The night was bitter cold; with skies so clear you could almost see tomorrow. Toronto was having winter in the worst way, but being a child of the Great Lakes, MacGyver wasn’t put off at all by the Fahrenheit or the Centigrade. He pulled his wool hat snugly over his head and continued on with his research.

The city skyline was almost day-bright with the building lights blazing into the night. The lights were the main reason that MacGyver was here in Toronto. Several local ornithological societies were trying very hard to get the high rise buildings to “unlight the night” and “warn away” migrating birds. The artificial lights blinded the birds to the fact that the high-rise buildings were death traps. Hundreds were injured and killed as they flew into the tall, glass structures on their long and treacherous flight back north. The glass canyons became deep cages from which the birds could not free themselves. Only human intervention helped to save those that were ensnared there. Mac was here to document the wind patterns of the city and do some studies for the Phoenix Foundation on the best way to help prevent the loss of avian life. This was a small assignment and not nearly as significant as many others that he’d performed in his long career. But a worthwhile endeavor: in that a life saved was a life saved, whether it was Canadian sparrow or foreign diplomat.

With the aid of the local groups and many weeks of all night work he was getting close to completion of the wind mapping of the city. Tonight was the last of the experiments. Off the shoreline of the lake was a small boat that had tethered balloons floating above it. Each carried a tiny radio transmitter. At his signal the balloons were released. Wind currents brought the balloons into town with Mac tracking the air currents and wind velocities. It was laborious work, but the data had to be there for any of his other information to work.

He had special permission to be on top of the CN tower all night long. The CN was the tallest man-made freestanding tower in Canada, but it wasn’t his first choice of places to be, considering he was just a tad queasy around heights. But you had to be able to put your own personal demons aside to work for the greater good and to get the job done.

He was totally focused on the tracking telemetry; gathering all the data needed.

“There aren’t many people up here this time of night.” A very deep harmonic voice interrupted his concentration, and Mac nearly jumped out of his skin. 

“Geeez Mister, you scared the life right out of me!” Mac turned to find a tall white-haired, fair skinned man dressed in tailored black leather standing behind him. The very imposing figure strode forward to inspect the human that the fates had offered up to him this night.

“That would be a new twist for me,” the stranger said rather dryly. 

“How’d you get up here anyway? The tower is closed and this isn’t exactly the tourist area either,” Mac questioned.

“I frequently come here to admire the view of the city. It’s a favorite perch of mine, you might say.”

MacGyver’s heart slowed down to light speed. This man said he had access to the place. So Mac’s concerns started to fade. By the way he was dressed; he wasn’t part of the cleaning crew. So he had to be some eccentric with bucks who had made his own ‘special’ arrangements with the tower. 

“My name’s MacGyver. I’m here working on a Phoenix Foundation study of migratory flight over the city.” Mac took off his glove and extended his hand in friendship.

“My name is LaCroix.” The vampire looked at the extended hand and then took it in his own.

“Whoa, you’re a might cold there, LaCroix. You better put your gloves on. You wouldn’t want to get frost bite up here.”

“Saving bird lives, MacGyver?” LaCroix said without letting go of Mac’s hand.

“I’m studying the wind patterns of the city. The natural migration path runs through it and the lighted high rises are a threat to the bird populous.”

“Ah, I see, Mister MacGyver.”

“You can call me Mac. I’m not much on formality.”

“Mac it is then.”

“Could I have my hand back now?” 

“Forgive me, I so seldom have company up here.” LaCroix released Mac’s hand and did draw out his own pair of gloves and put them on so as not to arouse suspicion.

Mac turned back to the skyline.

“It sure is beautiful tonight.”

“Yes, this is one of the more exceptional evenings.” LaCroix walked up to the edge of the building and sat down on it. 

“That’s a pretty precarious seat, LaCroix. You might not want to sit so close to the edge. Remember, there are no chain link fences up here to keep you from falling.” Mac was nervous about LaCroix’s cavalier attitude toward the height issue.

LaCroix looked back at the human and saw into his very soul.

“You have a fear of heights.” It was a statement of fact not a question.

“Is it that obvious?” Mac cautiously came toward the older man. “You’re not thinking of…”

“Jumping?” LaCroix finished his sentence. “Of course not, Mac. As I said before, this is my favorite perch. You weren’t thinking of trying to save me, were you?”

MacGyver relaxed and took a step back.

“The thought had crossed my mind. I forget that not everyone has my concerns about heights. You’re obviously quite at home up here.”

“How perceptive of you. You know, it’s not every man who would risk life and limb for a migrating birds or a stranger that he barely knew. You are an interesting specimen, Mac.”

“Thanks. I think. Well, I’ll get back to my work and leave you to your perch,” Mac said, smiling at the eccentric stranger, whom he would now be sharing his night with.

“Why not come and join me?” LaCroix patted the cold concrete next to him.

Mac looked at the older man, and a strange feeling came over him.

“I think I’ll come and join you.”

MacGyver found himself walking up to the edge of the building and sitting down next to LaCroix.

“Tell me, why it is that you fear heights?”

“I don’t…”

“Tell me, MacGyver. You can trust me.” There was something in the tone and timbre of LaCroix’s voice: it was so compelling, hypnotic.

“I wanted to be a jet pilot when I was young…”

“And what changed your mind?”

“I was eleven and I made a plane with a parachute. I jumped off the garage roof and hurt myself. My mother rushed out to see what had happened. She was so terrified; she was crying and I…”

“You felt her fear. You felt it so strongly that you connected it to all heights.”

“Yes.”

“You are not a child anymore, MacGyver.”

“I know.”

“Your mother’s fear is not your own. You can let go of it now.” An ancient ghost of feeling rose from Mac and dissipated into the cold night air as he lost consciousness. His body started to fall backward. LaCroix deftly caught the human before he could descend into the oblivion of death. 

“Good,” was all the vampire said.

(-_-)

MacGyver picked himself off the floor. He must have tripped and fallen. He felt weak and disoriented. Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he dialed Nick in the boat. 

“Nick Drake, here.” 

“Hi, Nick, this is Mac. I think I’m going to call it a night and go home.”

“You okay, you sound tired?” 

“Yeah, I fell down and scraped myself up a little. Must have hit something sharp on my way down too. I got a couple of nasty looking puncture wounds on my hand. Lucky its cold up here. They didn’t bleed much. But I think I’ve had it. Why don’t you close up shop and get some rest too.”

“Okay, did you finish your data collection?”

“Yeah, I think I got everything. I just need to get some rest. I’ll call you when I get up today. Thanks.”

The morning sun was chasing the night sky into day. For reasons he couldn’t place a finger on, Mac walked up to the edge of the building and looked over. For the first time since he could remember the gnawing, numbing fear didn’t reach out and grip his mind and body. The cold, tired feeling faded into the background and a crystal moment of exaltation encompassed his heart. He wasn’t afraid of heights any more.


End file.
